The Mindful Lens

Godin on Boundaries

Getting your photos noticed today is harder than ever. There are more people than ever who have competent enough skills to make 'safe' photos that adhere to the visual rules we've created- the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Mean, 'correct' exposures, tack-sharp focus, etc. All of these are considered at least somewhat important in making an aesthetically pleasing photograph. 

Unfortunately, aesthetically pleasing is unlikely to help you stand out from the masses. Playing by the rules can work and you may still get noticed but I tend to think that the reality of that is getting harder to achieve (saying nothing about your own marketing skills). Over at Seth Godin's blog, he posits that playing within the rules is the harder path these days. At least that's my interpretation of it. 

"Some artists continually seek to tear down boundaries, to find new powder, new territory, new worlds to explore. They're the ones that hop the fence to get to places no one has ever been."

The problem with applying this line of thinking in photography is that getting "to places no one has ever been" is certainly difficult if not impossible. What I think you can do though is to beak some of the rules we've been taught. Overexpose, underexpose, put your subject at the edge of the frame. Create visual tension in ways you normally wouldn't. You may not create something totally new but if it's good, I bet it has a better chance of standing out from the aesthetically safe masses.

"Going with the flow is a euphemism for failing."

Concept vs Reality

"Without seeing things as they are, it is hard to create art. Our perceptions are obscured and our mind is not fresh, so making art becomes a troubled, futile process by which we're trying to create something based on concept."

                            -- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Slowing Down to See

"I am almost always in a rush, even when I'm sitting down doing nothing. I'm often thinking of what lays ahead, a dozen different thoughts fighting for some elbow room inside the little space within my skull. Meditation helps a great deal in quieting the noise and providing me the breathing room to focus, but nothing really does it for me as when I go out with my camera and begin to photograph."

-Ibarionex Perello

I saw this opening paragraph today in a great post on Perello's blog. Our lives are so hectic these days that I think it can be a challenge for us to step out of that mindset. Like him, I find that meditation does help to stop the chatter for a while, or at least dial it back a bit. But the only time I can truly say that I'm completely in the 'now' with a quiet mind is when I'm out taking pictures, especially when I'm by myself in nature. 

To be able to experience a quiet mind like that to me is one of the greatest gifts photography can give to the person behind the lens. It may take a while once we get out there to get away from our habituated mind. But after a time it's almost like the lens itself falls away and we interact with our subjects in a way that most people don't get to experience. 

In order for this to happen though, we can't rush from spot to spot looking for the next good picture. Slow down. Stop. Look. Use your other senses to perceive your surroundings. See the interplay of light and shadow. Try to see not just what initially caught your eye but instead what the real essence of your subject might be. In doing so I think you'll find that your mind will quiet down and you have a much better chance of capturing a meaningful photograph. And even if you don't, slowing down and 'seeing' has it's own benefits beyond any picture. 

Which one are you? Who cares

For those of us that don't make a living from our photography, I think we suffer and mentally limit ourselves by saying or thinking we're "amateur" photographers. Why be constrained by the thinking that goes along with such a label. Why feel the need to labels ourselves such at all? David duChemin has a great post today over at his pixelatedimage:blog about this very idea.

What really matters? 

"That you’re learning to see the world in a way that’s unique to you, and you’re taking the time, with what talent you’ve been given, and what hard-earned skills you possess, to show the world that vision in clearer and clearer ways."

duChemin truly believes, as do I, that photography is simply about expressing and sharing your vision of the world with anyone that's interested. Heck, even if you don't share it, does it really make it any less valid? Whether anyone sees it, whether we get paid to click the shutter or not, we're still working on that vision, expressing it. That should matter more than anything else.

And if we're expressing our vision of the world through our photography, does it matter how we label ourselves? In quantum physics, it's understood that we can change the nature of an object simply by observing it. If we have the idea that the thing we are observing is a particle, it can behave like a particle. If we are observing the very same thing and think it is a wave, it can behave like a wave. The same object can behave as both a particle and a wave.

With this in mind, don't be an amateur, don't be a professional, just be a photographer and work at mastering your vision.